The Runner's Tale
by Madj
Summary: “As long as they stayed together, nothing could touch them.” Written for the John/Teyla Thing-A-Thon, but mostly a teamfic.


Title: The Runner's Tale

Title: The Runner's Tale

Summary: "As long as they stayed together, nothing could touch them."

Rating: PG-13

Characters: John, Teyla, Ronon, Rodney

Spoilers: Season 3, up to "Vengeance" or "the one where Michael plays Dr. Frankenstein."

Warnings: Character death like woah.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of "Stargate: Atlantis." Thankfully, because I'm very mean to them in this fic.

Notes: Written for the JT Thing-A-Thon. Mucho thanks to allisnow for the beta. Apologies to tli. You didn't want fluff or romance, which is about all I write, so instead you get angst and character death. LOL. But look at the pretty team love!

XxXx

The old man made his way around the fire, then slowly lowered himself beside it. The twinge in his muscles was a reminder of his years, but he had grown used to the sensation and barely marked it.

"Once, many years ago …" he began.

At his voice, the children murmured excitedly and gathered closer. They loved stories, and few among their people could tell a tale like the old man. Was it true or just a legend? Did he witness it himself, or was he just passing on someone else's story? Though he carried many years, something in his eyes said he had known adventures in his day.

The old man looked across the fire where a visitor, his oldest friend, sat. It had been long since he had spoken of things past, but tonight felt like the time to tell the tale. Perhaps the smallest of the children were too young, but another glance at his visitor decided him. Tonight would be The Story.

"Many years ago," he repeated, "when the city of the Ancestors still stood, there were four heroes. The Sky Walker, the Scholar, the Warrior … and the Runner. Though very different, they were a team."

He could see his visitor shaking his head. "More than that, they were a family. As long as they stayed together, nothing could touch them." He heard the bitterness of his own words, then sighed and began the tale.

XxXx

"No good deed goes unpunished."

"McKay," John sighed.

Rodney stood, towering over the girl who shrank away, pulling her bent knees toward her body as though trying to disappear into the chair.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Rodney growled at her.

"Rodney, enough," Elizabeth said firmly, and John didn't know whether to be relieved when McKay backed off or annoyed that he hadn't listened to John in the first place. He settled on annoyed, because when your city was under attack by a couple of Wraith ships, annoyance just seemed like the right response.

Elizabeth dropped into a crouch by the chair. "We know you did something to our shield," she told the girl, wincing as the city rattled from another blast. "We need to know what you did so we can fix it."

Ronon and Teyla rushed into Elizabeth's office and glanced John's way. He shook his head slightly, returning his attention to the girl.

She was young, maybe 11 or 12, and she'd never told them her name. In fact, she hadn't said a word since they'd found her on a deserted planet two days earlier. Lorne's team had heard rumors of another Ancient outpost at that address, but they'd found nothing except the girl. According to Dr. Keller, she was basically healthy, if slightly malnourished, and there seemed to be no physical reason she couldn't speak. Teyla had taken to calling her Susa, after a childhood friend, and the girl seemed to be more at ease around his female teammate.

"Susa," Teyla said, kneeling on the girl's other side. "Many of our people have been killed already. We are evacuating all we can through the Stargate, but many more are likely to be lost unless you help us. What did you do?"

The girl pulled her knees even closer to her body and stared out through a curtain of dark hair. Her brown eyes filled with tears, as more explosions shook the city. "He said he would kill my family if I didn't do it," she said finally, her voice soft as a whisper.

"Who said?" Elizabeth asked, placing a gentle hand on Susa's arm.

The girl turned her eyes on Atlantis' leader. She shook her head. "He was a Wraith … but different. He said his name was …"

"Michael," John said grimly. Ronon growled and began pacing the room.

The girl nodded, her eyes following Ronon warily. "He came to our village … they killed almost everyone …"

"But what did you _do_?" McKay yelped, unable to contain himself any longer.

"Rodney!" Elizabeth and Teyla chorused, aiming glares in his direction. The scientist sighed, folding his arms over his chest.

"He told me he would spare my mother and my brother if I waited for you, if you brought me here." Susa spoke rapidly. "He gave me a little box, made of metal, with a button on it. I was supposed to press the button and hide it away. … I didn't know what would happen, I promise! He didn't tell me! He would kill my mother if I didn't do it."

"I should've killed him when I had the chance," Ronon muttered.

"Join the club," John said. "How did he know where we would be?"

Susa shook her head. "He dialed the ring and told me to wait as long as I had to. I was there for many days before you came. I ran out of food and water."

"He planted that Gate address," Teyla said. "It was all part of his plan."

"Where's the device?" Rodney asked, and at least this time managed a calm tone.

"I put it in the room where you fight with the sticks," Susa said.

"OK, Rodney, you head for the gym and see if you can find the device –" John stopped as his comm beeped. "Sheppard."

It was Lorne. "Sir, the Wraith ships are beaming people … not people, creatures --" his voice was drowned by the sound of gunfire, and the transmission cut off suddenly.

"John?" Elizabeth moved to him. "What is it?"

"Michael's brought some friends to play," he said. He couldn't let himself think about what was happening to Lorne and his men. Not right now. "We have to get out of here."

"We can't let him have the city," Elizabeth said firmly. She looked around her office, briefly touching a few items on her desk, as if to reassure herself that it would all be safe.

"No."

"If I could find the device," McKay said, "maybe I could fix the shields."

"We can't wait around for maybe, McKay," John said impatiently. As many times as Rodney had saved them at the last minute, they couldn't gamble the future of the city on such a slim possibility. They had to be realistic. "We've got to set the self-destruct and get out of here."

"Perhaps we could set it for 30 minutes, give Rodney a chance to deactivate the device," Teyla said.

"If anyone can do it …" Ronon chimed in, ending with a characteristic shrug.

John and Elizabeth exchanged a glance. Even if Michael made it to the gateroom, he'd never be able to break their codes in 30 minutes. If they were lucky, the bastard would explode right along with the city.

"Okay, Elizabeth. We'll set the self-destruct, then you take Susa and the rest of the techs through the Gate." He saw through the corner of his eye that Dr. Keller and a handful of medical personnel, plus a few patients, were gathered at the Gate, ready to head to the Alpha site. "Ronon, Rodney, you check out the gym, see what you can find. Teyla and I will see if we can find any more of our people. Meet back here in 20."

Elizabeth entered her code, and then it was John's turn. Until this point, everything had gone so quickly, he hadn't had time to really think about what they were doing. But now, as he typed in his code, time seemed to slow, almost to stop. Each keystroke, each breath, was a little eternity. They were going to destroy Atlantis, their responsibility, their home. The first place he'd really felt like he belonged.

But they had no choice.

He finished typing, and the countdown began.

John looked at Elizabeth. "See you on the other side," he said.

She nodded grimly, her gaze stopping briefly on each one of them, lingering on Rodney. "Good luck."

XxXx

"They didn't stay together," one of the boys said.

"No," the storyteller shook his head. "They didn't."

"What happened next?" another asked.

"The Runner and the Scholar made it to the gym without seeing any enemies, and the ships had stopped firing on the city. It was very quiet and still, nearly like a normal night in the city of the Ancestors. They easily found the device, and the Scholar quickly realized there was nothing he could do …" The storyteller smiled slightly. "Though it took him quite a few minutes to finally admit it. The two made it back to the Stargate to await their friends, and it wasn't long before the first group of enemies began to attack them. This was exactly what the Runner had hoped for, for by that time his blood was calling for battle. Even the Scholar managed to fight well … at least, for him."

The visitor crossed his arms over his chest and let out a loud "hmmmph."

The storyteller continued. "As for the Warrior and the Sky Walker, they had managed to find only a few survivors …"

XxXx

"Five," John said disgustedly.

Teyla sighed and checked her watch. "We still have eight minutes."

He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the life signs detector.

Nothing.

Teyla sighed again, swallowing her anger and sorrow. They had little time, and she would think later about how many they had lost. She wasn't sure how many had escaped already, but they had only found the five survivors on this pass-through, and two of those were in very poor shape. She didn't know whether they would make it or not. She only hoped the path behind them, where they'd sent the survivors, was still clear of Michael's creatures.

"Stupid," John muttered, continuing down the hallway. "What was I thinking, bringing that kid here?"

"It was I who suggested it," Teyla reminded him. "We couldn't just leave her there; she's just a child."

John checked another room, found it empty. "That bastard Michael. When I get ahold of him … You know he already killed Susa's family."

"I am sure of it." She checked the room on her side of the hall. Nothing. "But she could not take the chance with their lives."

"It's so quiet," John said. "Too quiet. What the hell is he up to?"

"The creatures are in the city," she said. She could feel their presence, Wraith but not Wraith, a cold twist in her stomach. "He no longer needs to attack. They will take care of the rest."

"Dammit!" John slammed his palm against the wall. "There's nobody left alive here but us. We've got to get back."

She nodded, and they turned in synch. Though they had faced the idea of losing the city several times before, Teyla couldn't help but feel like they had let the Ancestors down in some way. Though the Ancestors hadn't turned out to be the gods her people had once worshipped, she still felt a sense of guardianship over the city on their behalf. And now it was lost. Unless Rodney could find a way to boost the shields in the next ten minutes, the famed city of the Ancestors would be lost.

"Perhaps Rodney –" her thought was interrupted as a new blast shook the city, sending her flying into John and then into a wall.

For a moment, she was disoriented. Hadn't this happened before?

"… all right?" someone yelled.

"Carson?" she asked. "I think …" She put her hand to her side, where she was wounded … but no, that was before. Carson was dead. So many others were dead now, too. She looked up to see John, half of his face covered in blood from a head wound.

"Teyla! Are you hurt?"

She shook her head, pushing herself up gingerly. Nothing appeared to be broken. "I am fine," she said. "You're bleeding."

She got to her feet, then stretched up on her tiptoes to press at his head wound.

He shook her off. "It's okay. But look."

He pointed to the side, and she gasped. The hallway was completely collapsed, in the direction they were headed. "Is there another way to the gateroom?"

"Sure," he said, leaning against the wall tiredly. "But not in …" he glanced at his watch. "… the next eleven minutes."

On cue, Rodney's voice piped up on their radios. "Sheppard? Teyla? You guys all right? That explosion was in your area!"

"Yeah, McKay, we kinda noticed that," John said. "We're OK, but the corridor's collapsed."

"We found the device, but I can't. … If I had more time, maybe –" McKay's voice cracked.

Teyla leaned against the wall next to John. She felt a wave of sympathy for Rodney; nothing was worse for him than admitting he couldn't solve a problem, especially when Atlantis was at stake.

"Did the survivors we found make it through?" she asked. _Please_, she thought, _let something go right today._

"Only five."

"That's all we found," John said, staring blankly at the opposite wall. He paused as another explosion shook the city.

"I don't know what he was targeting over your way, but he just took out the chair room," Rodney said. "We've got nine minutes and forty-five seconds until self-destruct. You better get back."

"Rodney, the corridor has collapsed," John repeated dully. "We can't get back through."

"But … if you took the second east passage to –"

"No time. You guys get out of here," John ordered.

"We can get through the passage to you," Ronon said.

John shook his head. "It. Is. Collapsed. You can't get through." He hurled something at the wall, and Teyla saw pieces of the life signs detector fall to the floor.

"But –"

"If we hurry, we could make it to the Jumper bay," Teyla broke in, walking across the hall, kneeling down to pick up the remains of the device. "The Daedelus will be back in two days; we can surely hide from the remainder of Michael's people until it returns."

"Two days with Grumpy in a Jumper," McKay said. "Better you than me. See you at the Alpha site."

"Yes," Teyla said softly. "You two, get through the Stargate." She broke the connection, then turned to face John.

"Pants on fire," he said, smirking a little.

"Excuse me?"

"Something we used to say as kids." He pushed away from the wall, stood in front of her. "No way we can make it to the Jumper bay in the next seven minutes. Not if there are any of those creatures around."

She shrugged. "They would not have left without us."

"No, I guess not."

She handed him the pieces of the life signs detector, amused that he looked embarrassed at what he'd done.

"Besides," she said, starting down the hallway, "we could make it, if we don't stand around talking all day."

He caught up with her in a couple of steps, and they both began to run. Only a minute later, however, they heard a scream from up ahead.

The woman, one of the newest scientists in the expedition, was dead before they could get to her. Teyla suspected that John took as much satisfaction as she did in riddling the creature with bullets. It didn't take as many as she had expected to kill it, based on their last encounter with Michael's creations.

Once it was dead, she took a closer look. "It looks … more human than monster," she said. While Michael's original creatures resembled large insects, this one had the form of a man, though the skin seemed more like an exoskeleton, hard and scaly — but not hard enough to deflect their bullets.

"Looks like a monster to me," John replied, looking at the body of the young scientist nearby.

Teyla stood, looking once more at her watch. "Three minutes," she said.

"Might as well keep going. Take out some more of these guys before we …" he made an explosion sound.

Teyla nodded. She herself would prefer to end things that way as well. "Colonel Sheppard," she said. "It has been an honor –"

"Yeah, yeah," he huffed, embarrassed. "Same here. No matter what, no regrets."

"Except for having to destroy the city and …" she smiled, made her own explosion sound.

"Well, yeah, other than that." He stuck out a hand to shake, and she laughed and threw her arms around him for a hug. _He never did know what to do with hugs,_ she thought. After a second, though, he hugged her back, hard.

They pulled apart. Teyla readied her gun.

"Let's do this," he said.

XxXx

"Wait!"

The storyteller paused, holding back a smile. He should have known his granddaughter would have an objection. She stood and tossed her head back, small arms crossed in front of her chest. "_That's_ not how it ends," she said, more of an order than a question.

When he didn't answer, the 6-year-old stuck out her bottom lip and let her eyes widen with the promise of tears. Jennifer didn't call her granddaughter a drama queen for nothing. "They escaped … didn't they?"

The storyteller sighed. "If you will let me finish?"

The girl frowned, then sank back to the ground.

"Now, then. The Sky Walker and the Warrior were in a dangerous position, it's true. But there was something they didn't know. Their friends had never believed the Warrior's lie, and they made one last attempt to help. The Scholar was a nosy one, and he made a point to find out and remember the passwords of the city's leaders. He used the passwords to override the self-destruct on the city and change the countdown. He added another ten minutes to the self-destruct before letting their friends know they had more time.

"The Scholar and the Runner escaped through the Stargate. They had faith that their friends could escape as well.

"And escape they did. Though they ran into several enemies on their way to the Jumper bay, they made it there with a minute to spare. Once they were in the ship, they knew they were safe. No one could fly like the Sky Walker, and they couldn't be caught when he was at the controls.

"As the explosions started to shake the city, the Jumper raced ahead of them, barely dodging the flames and flying debris. The city of the Ancestors was no more, but the Warrior and the Sky Walker escaped, shooting across the sky.

"And on a clear night, when the sky is still, you may just catch a glimpse of the trail left by their ship as it led them to safety, marking the heavens forever, so nobody can forget their heroism."

It was late, and the children were hustled off to their beds, stopping for hugs, thanking the old man for his story. More than a few stopped to squint at the sky on their way, looking for signs of a close escape. A few minutes later the two old friends were nearly alone on opposite sides of the fire.

Ronon watched Rodney stand and walk away from the light. He had only just gotten to his feet to follow when he heard his friend's voice. "Atlantis wasn't even _on_ this planet. You can't see those stars from here."

"No." Ronon moved to stand beside him.

"That's not what really happened," Rodney said, sounding sad. "You don't think that's what happened?"

Ronon shrugged. "I'm the storyteller," he said, finally. "I write the endings I want."

Rodney hummed and turned his gaze to the sky.

Ronon looked up, himself. The sky was a deep, mysterious blue scattered with shimmering stars. He half-closed his eyes, and the stars blurred, turning into the form of a Jumper, streaking across the endless expanse on the way to freedom. To life.

End


End file.
